There is a powerful message that comes to us through almost every aspect of our Judaism that we, the Jewish people, are charged to help change the world for the better…in partnership with God.
This charge has resonated, and inspired, Jews through hundreds of generations.
It is empowering to believe that we are an important part of something essential to the world.
That as human civilization moves through each era of time, the Jewish people have something vitally important to contribute to what we would term ‘progress.’
This manifests itself in part through each Jewish community’s commitment to tikkun olam, but even more so through individual’s who act ‘above and beyond’ for the sake of healing a world that is broken.
Each one is a drop of water that forms streams, until the good righteousness that we bring into the world is like a “raging river.” (Amos 5:24).
This Shabbat we recognize a few of these volunteers who help, in their own way, bring about the world that Judaism charges us to create.
The volunteers whom we honor each year with the Shirley Schiffer Volunteerism Award are not on our Board of Trustees (our Board is honored in other ways), but rather are congregants who often are ‘behind the scenes.’ We would invite you to join us for services to celebrate them, to celebrate our many volunteers, and in doing so, to celebrate Temple Emanu-El itself.
They are:
Robin Zusmann (for making sacred connections by leading our TE chavurah efforts)
Emily Sanders (for helping to lead our TE Endowment efforts to ensure long-term synagogue health)
Stacy Bedsole (for chaperoning 27 of our teens to Israel for their life-changing experience with Judaism)
Deb Perlstein & Nancy Glube (for taking the initiative with the CAC to feed our hungry neighbors)
Davida Steinberg (for bringing beehives, and the sweetness of bee education to TE)
Harriet Zoller (for leading our interfaith initiatives)
Hannah Diaz & Adon Seskin (for being exemplars in guiding our youngest students at DFRS)
Libby Pollock (for her courage, and inspiration, in donating a kidney to a stranger)
Please join us!
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Spike
